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GIVING LIFE TO LIFE: A Spring Retreat

Join Joshin Brian Byrnes during this weekend retreat giving us the rare opportunity to drop into the deep questions related to time, life, death, rebirth, and no birth no death. On Saturday, a day trip is scheduled to the ancient Pueblo ruins and cave dwellings of Tsankawi.

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The Life of the Buddha: Sharon Salzberg

Each of us really has that right to have that immense an aspiration.

Kwan Yin in Zendo by Áine McCarthy

As many of you know this is the full moon in May, which, in the Burmese tradition is considered the Buddha’s birthday. So, on the full moon of May, it’s said, in that tradition, the Buddha was born, he became enlightened, and he died—all on the full moon of May. So, it’s an extraordinarily sacred and important day… Not surprisingly, I want to talk about the Buddha.

…Mara attacked the bodhisattva who is just sitting there under the tree. He attacked with lustful visions, trying to get him to get up, frightening ghoulish sounds, horrible images, just trying to get the bodhisattva to give up. And each time, no matter what Mara attacked with, it’s said the bodhisattva just sat there with some balance, some calm, an ability to have some spaciousness from the armies of Mara who were attacking. And then it’s said the very last weapon in Mara’s army was basically kind of self-doubt. He said to the bodhisattva, more or less, “Who do you think you are?” Like, “Who do you think you are to even dare to imagine that you can be free?” That you can sit down under some tree and think, “I’m not going to get up until I’m enlightened, until I’ve broken through conditions and conventionality and really see the nature of life.”

…And it’s said that in response to Mara’s taunt, the bodhisattva, in this very famous gesture in Buddhist art, reached his hand over his knee and touched the earth, asking the earth itself to bear witness to, as they would say, all the many lifetimes in which the bodhisattva had practiced qualities like loving-kindness and patience and generosity and equanimity and so on. Many, many lifetimes—it was almost like this moral force that swept him to that moment in time where he had a complete right to have that kind of immense aspiration. He didn’t have to settle, he didn’t have to compromise, he didn’t have to give in, so he reached his hand over his knee and touched the earth… And it’s said that, in response, the earth shook, and Mara realized that he was defeated, so he fled into the night. And the bodhisattva kept on sitting and was fully enlightened at the appearance of the first morning star. And as a consequence of that moment, here we are, 2600 years later in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It’s a very potent symbol because each of us really has that right to have that immense an aspiration because as human beings we just have the capacity for that. Even if it’s unrealized, even if it’s obscured, even if it’s covered over. We have that kind of capacity, and we all do. They say that when we look at a Buddha statue, there’s almost a kind of transparency: We look at a Buddha to see ourselves, to see something possible for us as human beings. And we look at ourselves on that level, not to have a kind of feeling like, “Well, the Buddha and I are fine; you know, the rest of you are losers.” But to understand that on that level of our capacity, we see everybody, we see all of life. So, we look at the Buddha to see ourselves; we look at ourselves to see all beings. That’s what looking at a Buddha statue is said to be.

One of the things that was so interesting to me right from the beginning of my acquaintance with the Buddhist tradition—it was two things actually, among many: one was a complete inclusivity. It wasn’t like I got the message that you needed to be a certain kind of person with a certain kind of background or a certain kind of status in order to actualize that potential. Anybody could do it. And it took effort, right? It doesn’t just happen. It takes a moment-to-moment willingness to breathe life into those values of connection and awareness, and so on.

This excerpt was transcribed from Sharon’s talk at Upaya recorded 14 May 2014. Listen to the podcast of the full-length talk,The Life of the Buddha.

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GIVING LIFE TO LIFE: A Spring Retreat from April 3 - 5, 2015.This weekend retreat gives us the rare opportunity to drop into the deep questions related to time, life, death, rebirth, and no birth no death.